Tekleen Water Filter Defies Acid Rain And Ensures Smooth Operations

When processing up to 500 jars a minute of jams, preserves, and other products, maintenance should not worry about the process water of the spray pasteurizer. But at Knott’s Berry Farm Foods plant in Placentia, California, this was a big issue. Until they switched to Tekleen’s self-cleaning water filters. Tekleen’s innovative filters are transforming every plant’s operations today. In this article, let us explore how Tekleen filters helped leading food manufacturers and see why you should also get your filter quote from Purple Engineering, Tekleen’s Australian distributor.

The challenge at Knott’s Berry Farm Foods

Knott’s Berry Farm Foods is famous for its jams, jellies, preserves, salad dressings, syrups, bakery fillings, and yogurt bases. They operate out of a huge 250,000-square-foot facility and run production for 17.5 hours a day. Tom McMahon, the maintenance supervisor, shared their struggle, saying that since they run production 17.5 hours a day, they could not afford to shut down the pasteurizer. That is because then the filter would lose integrity and let particles like fruit seeds pass through and clog some of the 200 nozzles spraying 210°F water on the jars.

The plant’s in-line carbon steel filters were a nightmare. They were pitting and failing because of the acidic nature of the products. Because of this, there were frequent shutdowns and costly maintenance at the plant. Sometimes, a container gets overfilled, or a lid is misapplied. When this container enters the tunnel pasteurizer and heats up to 180°F or more, the lid may pop off and spill product (usually acidic preserves or jams) into the pump system. This caused the product to enter the filter and pitted the carbon steel filter. Therefore, they had to constantly maintain it.

The Solution

Louie Delgadillo, a maintenance mechanic on the line, said that they were manually cleaning the system four to five times per day. Each delay caused them about 20 minutes of downtime. And up to 500 containers a minute, it really added up fast. So, Knott’s Berry Farm Foods turned to Automatic Filters for help. In January, they installed a stainless steel Tekleen® filter system with a 400-micron mesh screen from Automatic Filters Inc. This filter has a two-stage design with an automatic back-flushing system. The system starts when there is a preset pressure difference between the in-flow and out-flow pressures.

How Tekleen Helped?

The Tekleen filter system changed operations at Knott’s Berry Farm Foods. Process water enters through a coarse screen into the filter. The flow then moves to the second stage, where it passes through the fine mesh screen to the filter’s perimeter and is discharged. As water flows through the fine filter, seeds and other fine particles build up on the mesh screen. This debris increases the pressure difference between the inlet and the outlet of the filter. When the pressure difference reaches seven psi, it triggers the back-flush valve, and the cleaning cycle starts. A vacuum rotor with several suction nozzles inside the filter connects to a pipe that goes to a separate discharge chamber. When the flushing valve opens, it creates suction in the discharge pipe, causing the nozzles to rotate and remove trapped debris. This whole process takes only 2-3 seconds per cycle, and it leaves a clean filter surface.

Benefits Of Using Tekleen Filters

The all-stainless steel Tekleen filter is rated to 210°F. And it can handle up to 250 gpm. It also has a high-performance screen sintered to perforated metal. Therefore, it gives about 80% more filter area than other filters sintered to PVC. McMahon said that to top it off, the Tekleen’s price was almost $1,000 less than a carbon steel filter. He added, What other justification does anyone need? It was an obvious choice.

Conclusion

Thanks to Tekleen self-cleaning water filters, Knott’s Berry Farm Foods could reduce downtime and maintenance costs. Now the plant can focus on producing high-quality products without any interruption. Not only in food manufacturing, but we, Purple Engineering, as Tekleen’s Australian distributor, also provide top-notch filtration solutions for every industry in Australia.